The Shameful Plight of Dogs in Brazil

Developing nations seem to be pretty much the same all over the world when it comes to attitudes, treatment and the condition of dogs (and cats too). Brazil is no different no matter how much Brazilians would like to think that it is.

The plight of dogs here in Brazil is both frightening and heartbreaking. It seems sometimes even worse than the extremes of the wealth and poverty of the Brazilian people themselves.

Essentially there are two kinds of dogs here in Brazil, there are PETS and then there are “all the other dogs”.

Pets are the dogs owned by the upper classes of Brazilians  and they are for the most parts more pampered and spoiled by their owners than are their children. The households revolve around the dogs and if truth be known they control it too.

Then, sadly, there are “all the other dogs,” which for the most part are unloved, unfed, poorly cared for, abandoned and simply left to run wild. Brazilians seem to treat dogs and cats as disposable. That cute puppy they give their kids gets bigger or gets sick and an alarming number of Brazilians have no problem whatsoever in simply taking it out in their car and abandoning it by the roadside miles away from home. This is a scene that repeats hundreds of times a day all over Brazil. Disgusting.

Many households (especially in large cities) have dogs that are kept outside, mostly because they believe that this provides security. The dogs are not trained in any way, are kept mostly simply because they bark at anything that moves. Brazilians couldn’t care less that the constant barking of their dogs day and night disturbs everybody in the neighborhood.  This leads to fights between neighbors and I’m sure is largely responsible for the frightening number of dog poisonings in every corner of this country.

Because Brazilians are also extremely resistant to spaying or neutering their dogs the population of street dogs is exploding at an alarming rate. Just walking down the street can be dangerous in many places, the risk of unprovoked attacks by street dogs is astounding. If you have a dog of your own and you’re out walking that risk becomes even greater.

Little if anything is being done about the serious problems regarding dogs. Greater São Paulo, for example, has an island accessible only by a small ferry. It is notorious for Paulistanos who make the crossing to the island simply to abandon their dogs there. The island is overrun by wild and abandoned dogs, strewn with the decomposing carcasses of dogs that have died of disease or starvation, yet nothing gets done.

While I have no figures I wouldn’t hesitate to say that here in Brazil thousands of dogs are put down every day. Many of them have known nothing but a lifetime of suffering and neglect because of the total absence of conscience of Brazilians when it comes to animals.

Dogs are man's best friend, but clearly man is a very long way from being a dog's best friend.